Cleaning devices



y 22, 1956 E. DESMOND ET AL 2,746,468

CLEANING DEVICES Filed De c. 10, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventor EEK; DEJMOND CH/IKLEJ JOJEPH THOKP fl Attorney United States Patent The present invention relates to apparatus for cleaning dirty; articlestby subjecting. them to: the combined. action of-a liquid cleanser andmechanical. agitation. Int manufacturing, processes it is frequently necessary to. remove from a metal article. cutting-medium 'andl swarf after the: completion of one machining operation. and. prior to the. next. Previously such cleaning has. been eiiected by immersing the article (or, if. the: articles. are-of a. suitable size, numbers. of articles) held. in. a container, such. as a wire. basket, in a suitable cleansingv medium (such. as for example. trichlorethylene), agitating it and thereafter removing. it and allowing, to. drain. Such a cleansing operation. is essentially intermittent and is. not. conveniently performed in. continuous. new. production when i articles are required to be passed om from. onev operation to another with little delay. It is accordingly the object of the presentinven-tiom to provide apparatusfor cleaning articles offthe. kind referred to. which. is essentially substantially continuous in operation and'i's suitable for mom continuous fiowproduction. Y =Accordin-g-tothe present invention-apparatus fiancleaning articles of the kind referred to comprises an elongated carrier adapted to accommodate a plurality of articles, said carrier being adapted'to be immersed towards one end below the surface of a cleansing liquid and extend above the said surface towards the other end together with means to apply a vibratory motion to the carrier whereby articles deposited at the end of the carrier below the liquid surface are fed along the carrier and eventually out of the liquid, being subjected to the solvent action of the cleaner and the vibratory motion of the carrier. Conveniently the carrier may be a trough in the form of a helix, carried on the interior of the wall of a vertical cylindrical drum, the lower part of the drum being normally occupied by cleaning liquid, and the drum and itscontents then being subjected to a vibration both about the drum axis and in the direction of the drum axis whereby articles deposited at the lower end of the trough are fed to the upper end thereof.

One form of apparatus in accordance with the invention will now be described with respect to the accompanying drawings, of which:

Figure 1 shows a sectional view of the apparatus in a vertical plane.

Figure 2 shows a part sectional view on a vertical plane at right angles to that of Figure l.

The apparatus has a fairly massive first generally rectangular horizontal base plate 1 upon opposite sides of 2 and the: three members being. disposed. somewhatim the configuration of a three stant'right-handedscrewabout the axis of electromagnetzst- The ends. of: the members remote from the plate'are attachedtto the basetofi a'cylindrical. metal drum14, whose a-xisacoincidese with that; of electromag-nct 8t to'thebaseof drum '14andilies over, but normally slightly displaced" from, the @l'ldSr'Of the. limbs of core% 9% The diruml tisliquid-tight, and is operratits upperendr (16), which; lies rather below the upper ends of thepillars. 2 and3. A shallow trough 17 in thetformzofa left-handed helixis attached to the inside of the vertical curved-wall of drum 14,-. its\ lower end: being-adjacent the: base and its upper end adjacent the open end of the The upper endis-providedwith.adisehargerlip18. The width of the trough is conveniently about oneeeighth of the diameter, andconveniently' the pitch: of the" helix in about twice the. widthof the trough.

. A- bridging member 19' connects-the pillars: 2 and. 3 adjacent their upper ends. This carries as cover 20 a1.- rangedto; enclose, butnot touch, theopen end of drum Mi Thehood in its turn carries, a feed member in: the general form. of arectangula-n vertical tube 21; open. at either. end,- with a hopper 22. atits; upper endiand acurved portion 23-at itsilower end, arranged adjacent to the lower end oftrough 17, but? not touching this, so that articles fed into the; hopper. 22- are fed. onto trough 17.w An. electric heatingrelement24-is supported from bridgingmernber 19 by means of a tube 25, which accommodatesdhe electric leads to the element. A. thermostat. 26i is supported from bridging, member 19, and controls the. flow of electricity to the heating el ementl te A /coiled-itube 27 is disposed towards. the: top of drum 1:4,- being also supported from bridging member 19, and is. adapted tobe supplied with aeooli-ng medium, most. conveniently cold water, through pipes 28, 29. A vertical tube 30, supported from bridging member 19, carries at its lower end a pump 31, which is driven by means of a shaft 32 situated within tube 30. The inlet of the pump is indicated at 33, and liquid delivered by the pump passes up pipe 34 and eventually through outwardly-directed jet 35. An electric motor 36, mounted on member 19, is coupled to the upper end of shaft 32 through a flexible coupling 37.

'In operation the lower part of drum 14 is filled with a suitable cleansing liquid, such as trichlorethylene, electricity is supplied to the heating element 24 and the elec tromagnet winding 10 is supplied with normal supply frequency alternating current (e. g. 50-60 c./s.)

The heating element 24 and thermostat 26 maintain the correct operating temperature for the liquid, and the drum has imparted to it an oscillatory motion having components both in the direction of the drum axis and about that axis, under the influence of the electrornagnet 8 and spring members 11, 12, 13. As the flux produced by the magnet approaches its maximum during any halfcycle of the exciting current, drum and trough move downwards and clockwise (as viewed from below). A small article originally in the trough 17 thus momentarily loses contact with the trough, and regains contact at a point slightly further towards the upper end of the trough of swarf etc.) finally draining, and drying by their own residual heat before being fed out over lip 18. It is An I.-shaped-. armature. 15v isattached probable that cavitation, produced by the vibration, materially assists the cleaning process. Vapor from the liquid is condensed upon coiled tube 27, and drops back to the bottom of the drum. It may be found in certain circumstances that the additional cleaning effectof the stream issuing from jet 35 is not required, in which case motor 36 will be kept stationary.

It will be appreciated that none of the components carried by bridging member 19 are in direct mechanical contact with drum 14 or trough 17. The second base plate 4, resiliently mounted with respect to the first base plate 1, is found to be extremely desirable. If the electromagnet 8 and members 11, 12, 13 are attached directly to the first base plate 1 the vibrating system constituted by base plate, drum etc. is tightly coupled to any bench or the like upon which the apparatus is placed, and the result may be that articles will not be fed properly along the trough.

It may be arranged, by, for example the provision of a sump under the cooling coil in which the pump inlet is situated, that the jet of cleaning liquid consists of condensed cleaning liquid vapor and is thus free from contamination by oil etc. dissolved in the main bulk of cleaning liquid. This is in certain circumstances very desirable. Apparatus in accordance with the present invention is particularly useful in connection with the flow production of relatively small components such as are used in clocks and instruments. Components from one machine may be fed continuously into apparatus in accordance with the invention and from that apparatus continuously to the next machine, there thus being no discontinuous cleaning process to break the flow.

We claim:

1. Cleaning apparatus comprising a cylindrical drum adapted to be disposed with its axis vertical and to be partially filled with cleaning fluid, a trough in the form of a helix attached to the interior of said drum, one end thereof being immersed below the surface of the fluid and the trough extending above the surface of the fluid,

a first base plate, said drum being resiliently supported on said base plate, means disposed between said base plate and said drum to apply a vibration to the drum both about its axis and along its axis whereby articles deposited at the end of the trough below the liquid surface are fed along the carrier and eventually out of the liquid, a second base plate whereon the first base plate is resiliently mounted, a member rigidly located with respect to said-second base plate and adjacent the upper end of the drum, said member not being in direct mechanical contact with said drum, means supported by said member and disposed adjacent the bottom of the drum to heat fluid contained therein, and means supported by said member and disposed within the drum to condense vapor arising from the fluid.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 comprising means supported by said member and disposed within the drum to direct a stream of cleansing liquid along the helical trough.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the drum is resiliently supported on the first-base plate by means of a plurality of similar elongated elastic members, each of said members having one end attached to the base of the drum and the other attached to the first base plate, said elongated elastic members being arranged in the configuration of a'screw about the axis of the drum, the sense of said screw being opposite to the sense of the helix, and the means to apply a vibration to the drum comprising an electromagnet adapted to be energized with alternating current and an armature cooperating with said electromagnet, one of said armature and electromagnet being attached to the first base plate and the other to the base of the drum.

References Cited inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

